10 THE STATE IN RELATION TO LABOUR. [CHAP.
Abstractions and Realities.—In endeavouring to gain clear ideas as to the proper method of legislation, nothing is more necessary than to descend from vague terms and abstractions to the definite facts which they imply or are founded upon. We cannot help speaking of principles and rights, but we must endeavour to avoid the persistent fallacy of taking words for things. Such principles are not existing things ; they are only complex propositions founded on, extensive experience, and indicating the probable results of actions. They are registers, as it were, of the convictions of society that a certain course will involve certain consequences. The principle of the common law, for instance, that parents have a right to the governance of their children, is a register of the general belief that the strong instinctive love of parent for child will be the best guarantee in general for the beneficial treatment of the child, while conducing also to the happiness of the parents. Mathematically speaking, there is a large balance of probability of good in favour of the law. Eut it can never have been intended that a right designed for the production of good should be perverted to the production of evil. Probability cannot stand against certainty. If it clearly appear that a parent is injuring his child, there is an end of presumption to the contrary, and it is a mere question of degree when the power of the law will step in to prevent this injury. To preserve an appearance of consistency the lawyers use various circumlocutions.
A parent has the legal right of chastising his child; but this does not mean that he may beat his child whenever he feels inclined; as the lawyers say, the chastisement must be reasonable; which, being interpreted, means